


The Song Remains

by ledbythreads



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Consensual Underage Sex, Led Zeppelin References, Loki!fifteen, M/M, Oneshot, Sibling Incest, Teenagers, Thor!seventeen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-14
Updated: 2020-01-14
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:13:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22245403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ledbythreads/pseuds/ledbythreads
Summary: At seventeen and fifteen Thor and Loki have little in common anymore. Their deep childhood connection fraying and worn. Thor can't seem to connect to Loki, though he desperately wants to, until Loki accepts the gift that Thor makes of the music he loves.(Set more or less in a 2020 version of @thebookhunter's A Dog Inside The Heart universe. This is a lovechild fic, a love letter from the Led Zeppelin fandom to the Thor/Loki fandom and visa versa. I drive our Ships to new lands. Valhalla, I am coming. As they say in Immigrant Song.)
Relationships: Loki/Thor, Loki/Thor (Marvel)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 24
Collections: Thorki_of_mine





	The Song Remains

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Dog inside the heart](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2556392) by [thebookhunter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebookhunter/pseuds/thebookhunter). 
  * Inspired by [Serpent](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7506325) by [thebookhunter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebookhunter/pseuds/thebookhunter). 



When he hears Immigrant Song from Loki’s room, he can’t help but feel tender as well as smug. Ever since Christmas and Thor got the Ludwig drums it had been a stand off between them. But Loki is a singer, or could be, and Zeppelin should be something he lets Thor show him.

It’s like when Frigga had said Thor should teach him to swim. He was late to it. Eight, Thor ten. He’d still go climbing on the rocks down by the river, poking in the deep pools like Gollum. Odin said he should have to take the public classes before he drowned, and made it sound like either outcome was something he could live with. Loki hated to be near naked in public. Hated the way the other kids looked at his ribs, and the way he walked on his toes. Fey. Sickly. Even with Thor standing guard it was never enough. So, Frigga persuaded Thor to take him.

Loki started to push him away even in the sticky chlorine heat of the cubicle. Wouldn’t be told. Wouldn’t be told to put his towel on top in the locker and let it trail instead in the wet. Kept his vest on. Insisted on putting the rubber strap for his locker key up over his elbow like a warrior arm-ring. Wouldn’t hold Thor’s hand going through the footbath.

Loki stands chest deep in the shallow end. Clearly terrified, arms across his chest, but looking at the other children like they were emissaries from a vassal state come to pay tribute. Thor dives in and sharks him. Nudges him at the back of his knees but doesn’t let him go under the water. Loki clings to him. Thor can remember that swell of protective warmth from Loki’s wet arms round his neck. Chest to chest.

Those first chords of Friends ring out from behind the door now. That rhythm that seems to double back on itself.

_‘Left me lonely_

_Looking for what I knew’._

Going back every few days. To try, again and again, that summer Loki had gone from a baby to his friend. Thor had watched him struggle, but Loki pushing himself just made Thor proud. Every time it took Loki three times as long to figure it out for himself. Watching Thor swim. Loki’s eyes dark pools even in the bright blue of the brash décor and fluorescent lights.

Frustrated at having to stay within his depth Loki eyes the sign forbidding non-swimmers in the deep end.

“Take me. Brother” 

Thor had towed him like a dolphin into the cooler quieter waters. And here, finally, Thor treading water, Loki lets Thor hold him on his back, hair fanning out like kelp. Let’s himself relax enough to feel it in his body. And Thor took his hands away. 

_‘You’re incomplete, there’ll be no finding_

_Looking for what you knew’_

Fifteen, seventeen. Loki pushes him away. Too grown. Not grown enough. Thor sees him looking but he can’t make Loki laugh, doesn’t know what he’s thinking. Except that Thor is an idiot, Thor is a jock, Thor is cishet, Thor is clueless, Thor is as dumb as rocks except dumb is a pejorative disablist slur. When Thor catches Loki watching him Loki’s face shuts like a sash window. Thump. Closed but you can still see through it. If he tries to wrestle with him Loki freezes and looks mortified, blushing and squirmy. Thor pulls his hands away like he’s done something wrong. But Loki is his brother, even if he sometimes looks like his beautiful older sister, or some kind of statue, or someone off Drag Race in the work room. Thor has gay friends. But Loki can’t just be gay, has to be something new, has to be something he says Thor can’t understand.

Loki listens to Bowie like he has found god. Won’t listen that Thor thinks Man Who Sold The World is quite good. Listens to retro new-wave goth. Bauhaus through the wall on repeat. Loki starts doing his eyes like Siouxsie. Then the Velvet Underground. Hisses if Thor tries to talk about Mo Tucker. The Stooges. Iggy writhing half naked all over his walls. Iggy was a drummer too Thor thinks. But Led Zeppelin. Cock rock. Straight music for straight people Loki says. John Bonham was a misogynist, punched that woman in a restaurant. And Thor, knowing this already, feels filled with a stinging rage, of loss, of grief for himself, and slams the door before he punches Loki. 

_‘It’s very easy just…’_

But it isn’t.

Now this.

Thor leaves his bedroom door open.

Loki is so lanky now. Long legs in spray on black jeans, muscles in his back lengthening from learning how to dive. He sprawls on his front on Thor’s bed to watch the movie. He’s cut up the Swan Song T-shirt Thor gave him so it’s almost but not quite a crop top. The slashed neck hangs off his shoulder like Robert in his Jimmy Page shirt. Shows his collar bones. The material is so worn soft that in places it’s almost translucent. Even with his undercut he’s started to let his hair curl a little. It’s like he’s softening his edges. 

He’d been listening a few days ago to Jet Boy Jet Girl and Thor had told him about Jimmy and Robert going to see the Damnned in 1977. Loki had not only listened; he’d trailed Thor down to the basement and sat on a bar stool swinging his feet while Thor played him the intro to New Rose. Thor wasn’t sure what it was, but his muscles feel different when Loki is watching. Like his brother’s approval makes him more liquid, golden. Softer touch. Harder sound. The next day Loki came to ask for Thor’s vinyl, and Thor had showed him little Yoyoka playing that cover of Good Times Bad Times on his laptop.

Loki can’t see why drummers matter. He just watches the singers, maybe the lead guitarist. It’s not only wounded pride. Thor feels like it’s magic. Magic he wants Loki to have for himself. He asks Loki to lie on his bed with his eyes closed. Smooths back his hair and puts the Bluetooth headphones on him. Thor taps at his phone and watches Loki’s scepticism melt right off his face. Watches him hear the Rain Song for the first time. Thor plays Bonham’s part in his head. His hand on Loki’s chest. Feels the brushes Bonham used instead of drumsticks in his hands. The open hallway of Headley Grange. Everyone listening to the sound, alive, profound, Jimmy at the mixing desk. Thor sees the tears spill from Loki’s eyes and he wishes he could kiss him. Like when Loki was small, and he hurt himself. Like when he first saw ET. Just, it was sweet. Being that close again. After, Loki scuttled off with Led Zeppelin I and II. The second time Whole Lotta Love comes on Thor hears Loki’s door lock. Thor doesn’t feel shut out anymore. Evermore. 

Tonight they will watch The Song Remains The Same together. Thor feels like some sort of minor miracle of shamanic rock is returning Loki to him. Loki used to climb all over Thor’s bed, would sleep with him sometimes. Would steal Thor’s clothes and leave his socks and books behind. Then he became unreachable. Of course, Thor wants to touch him again. It’s like he’s come home. Thor doesn’t really know how to ask.

Loki takes up so much more room. After he slots in the DVD. Yes the DVD. No I’m not downloading it. I have it already. After he slots the DVD they lie side by side and Thor shoulders Loki over, and they wait.

“I thought it was a concert?”

“Wait”

“This bit is so fucking macho Thor”

“Shut up. That’s Richard Cole and Peter Grant”

“What the managers are in it? Why?”

“Just wait. Cole was like a… like a head roadie”

“This is… god Thor. Doves?”

“Stop whining Loki, fuck. You watch Derek Jarman’s stuff. Ow, fuck off pinching”

He’s gone quiet. The kids in the river. Robert and Maureen. Loki is holding his breath. He’s never seen them? Thor is stunned. Why wouldn’t he look on tumblr or what?

“Robert?” Loki breathes it.

“Yes. Didn’t you ever…”

“I wanted… to see them with you Thor.”

“Thor?”

“Um”

“I didn’t know he looks like you…”

Loki puts a hand to Thor’s arm, leaves it there.

Bonzo on his tractor. Thor is glowing. He’s not going to say Loki has it the wrong way around. That Robert Plant is why he grew his hair. That Robert is why he wears love beads and silver cuffs. But that Loki has Robert’s ass. That Loki has Jimmy’s eyes. That Loki watches him like Jimmy watches Robert. And he doesn’t know what it means. Jimmy chose Robert. Thor wants to be chosen, again.

“Do they always look at each other like that?”

“Loki, people have been writing slash about them since the 70s”

“What do you know about slash for?”

“Reasons. Shut up”

Black Dog. Loki is hushed. Thor feels Loki pressing himself into the bed. Feels the heat on him. His eyes in the flicker from the screen are like an old arcade game and Robert is going to rain golden coins on Loki, if he continues playing with this single laser focus. Loki rutting into the sheets like that is making Thor horny. I mean. Come on. He’d say yes to Robert Plant sure. Or Jimmy. But his eyes keep pulling off the screen to Loki.

_‘Eyes that shine, burning red_

_Dreams of you all through my head’_

The way his lips are parted. How hungry he looks. As far as Thor knows Loki is still a virgin but he looks like he knows things. Knows them already. Thor turns onto his side and when they both shift, inch by inch, so Thor’s crotch is nestled to Loki’s hip. When that inexplicable electricity begins to pulse in time with Jonesy’s winding, impossible bass line. Thor doesn’t pull away. 

_‘Hey, baby, oh, baby, pretty baby,_

_Move me while you do me now’_

Jimmy drinking. His throat open. Robert talking, gap tooth, cosmic energy. Since I’ve Been Loving You. Thor swallows thickly. He has made himself come to this song so many times his erection is Pavlovian. That’s why. That’s why when Loki turns over onto his back and pulls Thor over him, he doesn’t stop him. That’s why when it segues into No Quarter and he hears his name in the song, and in Loki’s mouth, he’s gasping against Loki’s hair. Loki’s hands on his ass. That’s why his hands are on Loki’s belly under the falling angel of his old shirt. That’s why they are kissing, and Thor wants to, knows he wants to. Loki. Brother.

_‘They choose the path where no-one goes_

_They hold no quarter_

_They hold no quarter_

_They hold no quarter_

_They hold no quarter’_

**Author's Note:**

> This fic came out of my collaboration in LZ headcanon and general cahooting with Fishie @thebookhunter, my Led Zeppelin slash, her thorki, and mutual cross enablement. I wanted to give teen Thor and Loki some of what we feel for Led Zeppelin. A gift to fictional muses. A lovechild. 
> 
> Led Zeppelin are, if you don’t know. Jimmy Page, guitarist and founder; John Paul Jones, bass, multi-instrumentalist; Robert Plant, vocals, tambourine (tee hee) and harmonica; John Bonham on drums. Extensive archiving is a Led Zeppelin fandom thing - so these notes? TLDR. 
> 
> All songs lyrics in italics - Led Zeppelin  
> Friends [Led Zeppelin III, 1970]  
> Black Dog [Live on The Song Remains The Same DVD edn]  
> No Quarter [Live on The Song Remains The Same DVD edn]
> 
> You can watch the performances easily on YouTube as I’m writing January 2020. If you have never seen TSRTS you can read about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Song_Remains_the_Same_(film)#DVD_scene_listing  
> This should explain why Loki finds the beginning a bit unexpected (the concert is interspersed with fantasy sequences) The bit where Loki first sees Robert was filmed on Plant’s farm with his then wife Maureen and children Carmen and Karac I think 2 and 5yrs. The film was released 1976 but the live performances are largely 1973 in concert with a bit of sound stage fill for technical problems and general drama. It’s worth remembering that there was virtually no way to see Zep perform except through live concerts or this film (and a few bootlegs) till 2003 so Loki has the modern version of that experience. The copy I used is the 2007 edn. 
> 
> Also mentioned - Led Zeppelin  
> Immigrant Song [Led Zeppelin III, 1970]  
> Whole Lotta Love [Led Zeppelin II, 1969]  
> The Rain Song [Houses of The Holy, 1973]  
> Since I’ve been Loving You [Live on The Song Remains The Same DVD edn]  
> Good Times Bad Times [Led Zeppelin I, 1969, the eponymous first album] (Yoyoka Soma plays drums to the original track - I guess with the drum track stripped off)
> 
> Thor and Loki are watching The Song Remains The Same (Movie) on DVD
> 
> The Swan Song logo on was Loki now, Thor’s as was shirt, is often seen as Icarus falling after flying close to the sun. It might also be Lucifer or a falling / rising angel. The Logo is not for the band but for the record label they founded in 1975. It’s pretty much used synonymously now on merch etc.
> 
> Jet Boy Jet Girl (1977) and New Rose (1976) are songs by The Damned. Jet Boy Jet Girl is a cover of a song by the band Elton Motello. It’s about a 15 year old boy relationship with an older man who rejects him for a girl. It has the same music tracks as the more famous Ca Plan Pour Moi with Plastic Betrand recording only the different vocal on top. JBJG is therefore a teen queer anthem and a plagiarism / rights controversy. New Rose was the first ever British punk single released. 
> 
> All the Zep references are canon, for example Jimmy Page and Robert Plant did go and see early punk gigs including the Damned. If you want to read about the history of LZ slash look them up on fanlore.org  
> See also Tris/Alex which was one of the forms of covert RPS that Jimmy Page/ Robert Plant fanfiction was written as. Thor says 1970s. I think the earliest recorded by fandom archives is in the early 1980s.  
> Thor’s username on AO3 is @hammerofthedogs (not mentioned, but he did tell me about it. He writes Gen crackfic about Zeppelin in canine form). Thor asks for Ludwig drums for Christmas because they are the make John Bonham plays. 
> 
> All other band references are canon. Siouxsie is Siouxsie Sioux of The Banshees / The Creatures etc. 
> 
> Thor is being sarky about Derek Jarman - extraordinary, groundbreaking, gay cinema auteur. 
> 
> Yoyoka Soma was 8 when she recorded her Good Times Bad Times performance for the Hit It Like A Girl competition and you can read more and see her do it here: https://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2018/06/11/618963329/watch-this-8-year-old-girl-crush-led-zeppelins-good-times-bad-times?t=1579010924437
> 
> I'm new to presenting to Thor/Loki fandom so I wanted to say of course I'd love to hear how these two read to you and what this is like if you are not familiar with Led Zeppelin or their fandom / fanfiction. I'm queer/genderqueer and while I write for everyone I'm always interested in those goggles in particular. I'm also @ledbythreads on tumblr and I like to chat. I think Jimbert (Page/Plant) and thorki have a lot of similar images and iconography, if you ever want to visit the tiny but wonderful LZ slash fandom you will be made very welcome. Also if you are reading this because of my LZ fic I guess it is a very long story... The Song Remains.


End file.
